Serious Stone
by V Translanka
Summary: A new world, new characters, and a new Lavos.
1. Chapter 1, Degradation

Intro: One Stormy Night

And one stormy night, he looked into himself and he saw it; seas and leagues of death, pure and unfounded as that murderous, crimson-painted sky that leered above. There was no reason for such. No reason for the rage in his heart or the dull ache in his mind. But there was a word. A word he could not hope to understand: Chivos.

...Degradation

The room was painted a deep, royal blue, but it had been a sloppy job by someone who had never painted a room before; there were missing patches, places only coated once, and corners that held hardened globs of paint. Sunlight was coming in directly from a window with no curtains or blinds. There was someone laying facedown on the lone mattress in one of the room's corners. A white pillow, no case, was over his head and a loose-knitted, blue and white blanket was crumpled around his midsection, exposing black-boots on his feet.

Someone knocked lightly upon the door to the house, but he could not hear it.

He was dreaming.

-----

"What are you protecting?" The man who seemed to take up most of the little room shouted at a shivering man who sat with no shirt on. The words came out like barks and puffs of his breath poured out.

"Myself..." The younger man with no shirt said; it was almost a whisper. His words bounced and echoed off the four silvery metal walls and his breath did not become visible, "You and _everyone else_...for now..."

"What do you _know_?" The man standing over him asked for the second time. Except for the one chair, the room was bare; light from the ceiling glowed in rhythm with their breathing. The gruff and stout man asking the questions had deep creases detailing his features, and white hair that was buzzed close to his skull. The dark green hooded jacket he wore signified his affiliation with the military, but it didn't mean much to the man sitting down. Just that the man with the jacket was warm and he wasn't.

"There's nothing you can do. There's nothing anyone can do." The man who was sitting down said. He shifted his naked legs and rubbed the toes of his foot. They had left him with only his underwear, "All we can do is wait."

The older man's right eyebrow rose, "What do you mean? How do you know this?"

"We have the time." His gray eyes seemed to pierce the older man's, "That's all we have."

-----

"Another mild earthquake rattled citizens in North Bend this morning." The reporter spoke with a quick, practiced flow, "I'll bet they're really rockin' down there, Julie." He said with a smile as he turned to his fellow news anchor. She smiled at him in a way that many people suspected was rooted in a sexual tension between the two hosts.

"Oh, I'm sure they are, Tom." She said to him, "And speaking of rockin', the new trio band Anastasia will be performing, live, in studio, in just a few minutes, so stick around." Then Julie Summers and Tom Williams (both fake names) gave the station's name, followed by the words 'action news' and the picture switched from the news room set to a commercial about hemorrhoid cream. This quickly switched to a show with two women clawing at each other's faces.

"Hey! I was watching the news!" A thin girl with short, sandy blonde hair had turned to the boy sitting next to her on the couch in front of the television. His hair was medium length, light, chestnut brown and it was very messy. He only wore sweat pants and a pair of tough, but well worn, black boots; his chest was well toned.

"So what? It's a commercial." He said without looking at her. She just looked at him and then looked down in a kind of sad, defeated way. But as she was looking down, her eyes became transfixed on his bare chest. A terrible kind of lust heated her body and she had a strong desire to run her fingers along his torso, to feel his hard muscles and bite him all over.

"...disappearance of the group, made up of over thirty soldiers and ten civilians, in the arctic region of Celestia has awarded no official response from the presidents or any of their advisors..." The commercials had ended and he had turned it back to the news while she was occupied with her sexual daydream.

"Sarah-Anne?" He said, but she didn't respond, "Sarah?"

Sarah jerked and fell off the couch when he touched her to try and shake her out of her daze.

"Ouch, Serius, what'd you do that for?" Sarah asked.

"What are you talking about? You were zoning out or something, weirdo." Serius said, "I was asking whether or not your cousin was still up north."

"Uh, Patricia? Yeah, she's studying in some small town north of...of..." Sarah's eyes had drifted to the television and then grew wide. The news program's bottom banner stated 'Arctic Terror' and the camera swept across a ruined landscape of what could only have been buildings. Her voice trembled, "...C-celestia."

-----

A tube fell to the floor and shattered. The glass splinters scattered making crinkling sounds that echoed in the darkness and her mind became a knot of anxiety mingled with her current fear. Translucent red liquid spread out and seemed to reach for her. Fluorescent light flickered from outside the glass-walled room she was in. It created glares across her glasses masking her green eyes which were swelling with tears.

Each time the light flickered, she absorbed more of the scene in the hall. The far right window was cracked. Then blackness, her heartbeat filling her ears, and another flash. A toppled picture and shards of glass from the other ceiling lights spread throughout the hallway. Blackness again, her breathing quickened, and a final flash. Blood and bodies.

The light made a short hiss and then popped dead. Her breath was caught in her throat and a single tear carved its way down her cheek. She had seen her bald senior advisor in that brief moment between all the inky darkness. The afterimage pulsed in her vision. There was something squirming out of his side. At first she thought it was some kind of glistening nightmare snake, but then realized that it was his intestine. Bile crawled up her throat.

But then she saw it again and was frozen like a small animal. Her heart raced and her eyes locked on that single glowing, dull, red glare coming from down the hall.


	2. Chapter 2, Temporal

Intro: The Fear Factor

And the fires in the skies were no match for those in his eyes. Disorientation grew as the leaders fell and their followers followed. There was a cumulative feeling that spread through the world; a feeling of fear. But there was hope in all of it. There was hope in one thing: Truth.

Temporal...

"Hello?" He asked.

"Hey, Serius." A girl's voice responded.

"Oh." Serius said, nodding his head as he switched the phone between hands, "How's it going, Sarah?"

"I was thinking of coming over later, is that cool?"

"Oh yeah, so good of you to ask _after_ I'm pretty much done painting." He said and looked around the empty blue room, "I'm kind of tired now, but yeah, come on over soon. We'll watch TV. or something."

"Okay, sounds like a plan."

-----

He had been told to take the blindfold off after they led him through the halls. They had taken his clothes. The room the guards brought him to had one chair in it. Lights came to life when they pushed him through.

"Take a seat." One of them said to him.

"Will I get anything to wear?" He asked as he slumped onto the chair, knowing the answer, but saying what they figured he'd say. The guard closed the door, leaving him alone. There was a days worth of stubble on his chin and he scratched it, lost deep in thought. They took his clothes; put him in a cold box with light that pulsed in rhythm with his breath. They were trying to intimidate him, to scare him.

"Now there will be questions." He said and turned away from the door. On the back of his neck there was a fresh wound, just scabbing over.

-----

Sarah-Anne stroked her blonde hair through her fingers and then knocked on the light blue wooden door. The sunlight gleamed on her head and created a halo of light in her hair. She took a deep breath and waited; she had never been with Serius alone before, at least, not in his own house. They had known one another since Sarah transferred to the high school Serius went to and had made friends with each other when she had looked at him and he had made a face at her and smiled. There were times when they would go to each others houses or go out to the mall or a movie, but _this time would be different _she thought.

No one answered. _Probably asleep_. She thought. He had said he was tired and it had taken her an hour and a half to get ready. The smell of her perfume was overbearing, but Serius wouldn't notice.

She creaked open the unlocked door and peeked her head in. There were a lot of boxes and a couple of cans of blue paint in the living room around the television and the couch, but Sarah couldn't see Serius.

"Hello?" She took a step in and closed the door behind her, "Serius?"

A hall with two doors on either side stretched to the right, past the couch and there was a cramped looking bachelor kitchen to the left. It was so empty and quiet and Sarah-Anne's heart was still beating heavily. Uncontrollable thoughts of Serius waiting for her flashed through her head. She imagined a candle-lit room, a roaring fireplace, and Serius, the smell of him. Shaking the thoughts away, she opened the door on the left.

Serius was passed out on his lone mattress, his old black boots still on and his caseless pillow covering his head. She smiled anyways and sighed either from disappointment or relief, she couldn't tell.

-----

Hovering above the ground, the man, who was really some kind of half-man half-demon, continued to speak in tongue. He was naked except for a pair of white, cotton boxers. Men in black suits had handguns trained on him, but many of those guns wavered in the hands of the men. They all saw it as the smile formed across the demon's lips.

"Yes." It said and its eyes whipped wide-open. White light poured up through its eyes and then it blackened and turned to a deathly, undead, crimson.

And the light filled the room. It swarmed through the building. Then it swallowed the town.


End file.
